Notes and Editorial Reviews

Kathleen Battle's Rosina is sexually alluring, agile and ingratiating, and Domingo's Figaro reveals the astonishing craft and natural musicianship of this great singer.

[A]s well as possessing a fabulously fluent coloratura technique, Kathleen Battle also has richer, smokier tones in her voice. Her Rosina is sexually alluring, agile and ingratiating, but never vapid... Domingo's Figaro reveals the astonishing craft and natural musicianship of this great singer. It is in many respects a masterly performance... Lucio Gallo's furtive, dapper, inwardly angry Dr Bartolo is as much a triumph of guileful characterization as it is of high-wire virtuoso musicianship. Indeed, the virtuosity of the pattersinging is one of theRead more set's most remarkable features... In all this, Abbado's experience proves crucial. But, then, he was always very good at controlling Rossini ensembles. What we have from him on this latest set is an entirely new sense of the inner detail of Rossini's score. More than ever, he seems willing to chance his arm with Rossini in a way he rarely does with, say, a Beethoven symphony... In all this the players of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe are his fearless confederates.

Customer Reviews

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